


A Banquet For Ghosts

by geckoholic



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-22
Updated: 2013-12-22
Packaged: 2018-01-05 15:18:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1095546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/geckoholic/pseuds/geckoholic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The breach is closed, the world has been saved, but all three of them still have ghosts walking beside them. </p><p>Mako, Raleigh and Herc, post-movie.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Banquet For Ghosts

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Everbright](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Everbright/gifts).



> This is for your prompt of "Raleigh and Mako either together or heading there, and they see Hercules not dealing with the all the sad things at the end of the movie. In the course of helping him, all the end up together", except for how the 'all end up together' part doesn't happen. I tried to spin it there, but it refused. Soooo, what I ended up with is more something like found family fic, I hope that's okay too! And you're free to imagine the sequel, heh.
> 
> Beta'd by dotfic, thank you!! ♥ All remaining mistakes are mine.
> 
> Title is from "A Banquet For Ghosts" by Matthew Mayfield.

For most of what she can remember of her life, Mako Mori has lived in Shatterdomes. Wherever the PPDC took Pentecost, Pentecost took her. Tokyo, Sydney, Anchorage. Other places, for shorter periods of time. She's lived in them while the Jaeger pilots became rock stars, and she's lived in them when they were declared obsolete and the program had to be sustained with black market deals and the Russians' bargaining skills. 

This is the first time she's had to live in one that's empty. 

There are still people around, of course, techs and maintenance staff. But it doesn't hold Jaegers anymore, and won't ever again. Exactly three pilots that have ever seen the inside of a conn pod are still standing, herself included. LOCCENT gets scaled down after a few days, just one or two people at a time to monitor the breach and make sure it's really over. 

Mako spends most of her time after debriefing and post-mission routines in Pentecost's office, until someone puts framed pictures of the Kaidanovskys, the Weis, Chuck, and Pentecost up on the wall after a week or so. Later, engraved plates are added. To Mako it just serves to turn the room into a graveyard. She attends the wake and the ceremony when the plates are hung, but never sets foot into it again. 

 

***

 

After the breach is closed, the world heaves a collective sigh of relief. It's quieter than Mako imagined – a few parades and celebrations, yes, but nothing much compared to the videos she saw from the first few times the Jaegers stood victorious. She suspects people are too exhausted to expend much energy on festivities, when there's so much more to do. 

The walls get torn down first. They already proved ineffective, and had protests rallied against them when they were still a project on the drawing board. Slowly, people in the areas near the ocean start to rebuild. 

No one has yet touched the remainders of the PPDC. Especially not in Hong Kong; there's nothing much to do other than routine maintenance and reflection on the events that cost so many lives. Gottlieb and Geiszler are the only ones who are actually busy, now. But the Chinese government has taken to paying everyone's wages, and not a single employee has been sent home, no matter how high or how low their status. As far as expressions of gratitude go, it's neither a big nor a dramatic one, but Mako couldn't come up with anything she'd want more right now. At least, nothing that money can buy. 

But all that doesn't mean the world at large is ignoring them. Everyone seems eager to celebrate their heroes, a title neither of them feels comfortable wearing. The same journalists that helped the suits tear down the Jaeger program – when its glory wore off and it made way for reports of death and loss – are now falling over themselves once again to talk to her, Raleigh and Herc. Television cameras are not an uncommon sight in the Hong Kong shatterdome these days, and Mako comes to hate them pretty fast. They want them to tell the same story over and over again, leaving them no room to mourn and adjust. 

Right now, an Australian news team is making the rounds, looking to catch their surviving hero. Herc, though, is nowhere to be seen. When they spot Mako, they charge her way instead. She considers ignoring them, pretending she didn't see and hurrying on, she's far enough away from them for that too work. But then she spots Max just around the corner, sitting with his back to her and panting at something – or someone – she can't see. 

She swirls around, tries to smile, and marches towards the camera. 

 

***

 

Herc finds her the next morning over breakfast, after the camera team threw in the towel and left. She's sitting in front of a half-empty tray, waiting while Raleigh's in line to get them bread rolls. 

“Thank you for yesterday,” Herc says, puts his tray across from hers and sits down, patting Max's head. The dog doesn't leave his side these days, probably in attempt to make sure Herc doesn't disappear on him too. 

Mako gives a courteous little nod, gaze flickering to him before she half-turns to watch Raleigh move ahead one step at a time. “Of course.” 

They both continue to stare onto their trays right until Raleigh finally joins them. He squeezes her hand when he sits next to her, then addresses Herc. “I hear there've been talks to suggest our very own Dr. Geiszler for the Nobel prize. Jeez, if they do _that_ , he's going to be completely insufferable.” 

Herc grimaces. “Oh, good lord, he'd hover an inch above the ground at all times.” 

Mako doubts anything like that happened, but Raleigh's been doing this a lot lately: chatter the silence away, try to talk louder than both of them can think. She's grateful for it, and if she's correctly interpreting the way Herc's shoulders sag in quiet relief as Raleigh goes on to suggest they call the committee and inform them that Geiszler set kittens on fire as a kid, so is he. 

 

***

 

The mission to retrieve whatever may be left of Gispy Danger and Striker Eureka and gather data about the state of the breach starts three months after Pitfall, and it makes for a weird mood around the Shatterdome. For one thing, people seem glad that there's something concrete to do again. The atmosphere is busy and vibrant, but also somewhat somber. 

Neither Mako nor Herc nor Raleigh are part of the recovery mission on site, although the deep water submarine to do that job does carry some PPDC techs in addition to its own crew. 

The sensors at the breach are still in position, an insurance policy of sorts, and for the first time in weeks there's readouts for the area surrounding it that isn't whales or large fish. It's a little bit like opening a door you kept closed since the person vacating the room has left. Mako watches Herc monitor things and give out commands with a stony face, Tendo stating the readouts, Raleigh hovering in the background with his arms crossed over his chest. 

She's almost suffocated by the weight of the memories that wash over her, out of the blue, completely unprepared for how vivid the throwback is. So many other times she's watched the LOCCENT routines, and every single time it was Pentecost who orchestrated this, made calls and gave commands. She can almost see him, in his uniforms or dark blue suits, focused at the task at hand but gaze sneaking away to her every once in a while anyway. His voice echoes in her head, and it's too much, it's all way too much. 

Mako doesn't run. She doesn't shed a tear as she slowly walks out of LOCCENT, or even as she walks through the hallway down to her quarters. When she hears Raleigh coming after her, his footfall already so familiar to her that she could never mistake it for anyone else's, she marches on, but leaves the door open for him. 

He stops in the doorway, head tilted to the side a little, worry written all over his face. “You okay?” 

Instead of answering, she looks away. “You should go back up. They may need you.” 

“Nah,” he says, stepping into the room after all and closing the door behind him. “They won't. There's nothing I know about all this that someone else doesn't know better.” 

She doesn't have a reply to that, and he sits down on her bed, touches the back of her hand to make her join him, scoots to make room when she does. “Have I ever told you about... the other side?” 

He didn't, not with words anyway, so she shakes her head. 

“I'll tell you one thing, all those alien invasion movies didn't even get close.” He pauses when she inches closer and puts her head onto his shoulder, closes her eyes to listen better, forget everything but the warmth of his body and the sound of his voice, and he gets the hint and continues. She looses track of time while he talks, nods off at some point. When she comes awake again he's settled them into a more comfortable position, silent now, but stroking the back of her head. They lie like that until dawn and into the new morning, awake still, but together. 

It's the last night Mako and Raleigh sleep in separate quarters. 

 

***

 

After a while, things quiet down. Life goes on. The news find other things to devote their attention to, things that don't have anything to do with the war, or if they do, are about rebuilding and moving on. Mako spends her time assessing the data left from their last few missions, and she feels like someone studying a dead language. 

In late summer, a team of representatives from several governments and military officials announces their arrival at the Shatterdome. It's time to find a new place for the PPDC in this new world, they say in a memo. They invite Herc and the docs to a round table of sorts, to figure that out. 

Herc's in a foul mood for days, barks orders at everyone he comes across and keeps to himself even more than usual. 

When they arrive, in their parade uniforms and shiny suits, they take him and Newton and Geiszler and disappear behind closed doors while the rest of the crew, Mako and Raleigh included, hides in their quarters and does its best to stay out of their way. They all have a track record with official decision makers, and these may very well be some of the same people that shut down the Jaeger program in the first place. 

Half an hour later, the comm clicks to live in Mako's and Raleigh's new shared quarters. 

“Miss Mori?” Herc's voice asks, and the only reason she can sense the nerves underneath the authoritative tone of his voice is that she knows him since she was a kid. 

She looks to Raleigh, who shrugs but smiles encouragingly. “Yes, sir.”

“Your presence is required in the conference room. I expect you to be here in fifteen minutes. Bring your, uh, calculations.” 

Mako changes into the shiny uniform all three of them got for the first few press conferences, snatches the thick folder that lies on top of her desk, and does as she was ordered. 

As soon as she enters the room, all eyes fall to her. Herc clears his throat to get her attention – draw it away from the fact that she's the center of attention, which has never been her favorite place to be – and points at a chair to his right. Only then she sees that Tendo has been seated to his left. 

“Miss Mori,” Herc says. “I was telling these gentlemen what interesting work you've done with the readouts from Hong Kong and the breach.” 

She doesn't miss the way his voice rises on the _gentlemen_ , just enough to not pass as outright mocking, and can barely hide her smile. Herc always did have a hard time to bow to any kind of authority that wasn't Stacker Pentecost. 

She sits down, opens her folder, and leaves the room three hours later with the assignment to oversee recovery of scraped Jaeger parts from Oblivion Bay. She and Tendo are to report on the possibilities to integrate the technology into civilian society in six months' time. 

 

***

 

In the weeks that follow, Mako travels back and forth between California and Hong Kong. It would probably be easier to stay near Oblivion Bay full time, but she doesn't want to. She hasn't had a home since she was a kid, and Hong Kong isn't quite that, but she's not willing to leave the last place she shared with her Sensei just yet. Not for good. Plus, there are other people she calls family, now. Not the same, not really, but nothing she wants to give up on either. 

The year draws to a close. A few people have left, found other work, moved on, and the others have been given tasks to fulfill by her and Tendo. Not all of them are strictly necessary, but no one's complaining, not the officials in charge of the budgets and definitely none of the workers around here. 

November 2nd 2025 is a Sunday, and Mako's been back in Hong Kong for two weeks straight to do paperwork and talk things over with Tendo and their crews. She hasn't seen much of Raleigh, who has been assigned to help train a few civilian research teams on a slimmed down version of the conn pod, so they know what they're talking about when they report back to their companies. It's not really his kind of work, but he seems content for now. They'll figure out what they'll do after this project is done, see what happens after. They talked about that already, decided that if they go anywhere, they'll go together. 

Herc is still acting as working head of the PPDC, and he has some traveling of his own to do. It does him good; he's gotten rid of the scruff, dug out dress shirts again instead of the worn pilot's gear he used to wear for the past years. Mako suspects it's some kind of escape, running from the very thing he shared with his son, but she can't blame him. 

Around sundown, Raleigh steps into their quarters, carrying a package and wearing a solemn expression. He disposes of the package on his own desk and for the next half on hour, while she's still working, he hovers in the way she's come to associate with him being unsure and nervous. 

Eventually, she's had enough, puts her pen down and turns around to him. “What is it?” 

He takes a breath, deep enough that his chest rises and falls with it. “You'll find out soon.” 

That's all he says, staring back at her with determination, and she knows there's no way to get more out of him if he decided he doesn't want to tell her. He's pig-headed like that, and she continues to work while he continues to pace, then sit down, then pace some more. 

A little later, there's a knock on their door. Raleigh's up to open it before she can put her pen down, and when she looks up there's Herc, standing in the doorway with raised eyebrows. His eyes find hers, silently asking what's going on, and she shrugs her shoulders in reply.

Raleigh, on the other hand, nods to himself and picks up his package again. “Okay. We're all here, off we go. Come with me?” 

The last bit is addressed to both of them, and Mako rises to her feet to follow him out into the hallway. He leads them past the other quarters, upstairs, and it doesn't take her long to realize where he's headed. 

She stops dead. “No. I'm not going up there. I don't want to. You know that.” 

Raleigh hands his package to Herc, faces her and runs his hands down her arms. “You trust me, right?” 

“Yes, of course, but what –“ 

He looks her in the eye then, smiles, and it's almost like they share a consciousness again. He doesn't need to say anything else. She knows it's her choice, that he won't take it in a bad way if she turns on her heels and goes back to their quarters. She also knows that whatever it is he's got planned, he honestly believes that it's going to be good for her. For Herc too. For all three of them. 

And so she keeps going, even when he ask Herc to unlock the door to Pentecost's office. She doesn't run when he leads them directly to the pictures and the plates, then asks them to wait for a moment and nestles around with his package, back turned to both her and Herc. 

Herc's eyes are immediately pinned to Chuck's portrait up on that wall. There's a shine in them that might or might not be unshed tears; she's not comfortable looking hard enough to be sure. 

She's glad when Raleigh turns back around, a potted flower in each hand, and extends them towards her and Herc. His smile his sheepish, hopeful but worried. “These are chrysanthemums. My mother's french, and down there – or maybe all of Europe, I don't really remember – it's a tradition to visit the graves of your dead relatives on this day and honor them with flowers. They call it All Soul's day, following All Saint's day. When we – when I was little, we did that for my grandparents. Every year. She took us to the graveyard, made us put the flowers on the graves and said a prayer. I'm obviously gonna skip on the prayer here, but... Yeah. Well. I thought it's a good idea. To do this. Here. For – “ his eyes fly up to the wall, linger on Pentecost, then Chuck “ – for them.” 

He wiggles the flowers a little, and Herc's the first to take his. He clears his throat, then bends down to put it below Chuck's picture. It takes him a while before he gets up, and when he does, it's to whisper an apology and march straight out of the room. 

In the meantime, Mako has taken her flower, but didn't do anything thing with it yet. She's just standing there, holding it, unsure and overwhelmed, while Raleigh looks increasingly unhappy. 

“I'm sorry if I'm offending you with this, I know it's not _your_ tradition, and to be honest, I don't know all that much about – “

“It's not that,” she says, about to reach out to touch his arm before she remembers that her hands are currently occupied. She turns the flower around in her hands, stares at it some more. “Don't worry, it's not that.” 

Finally, she kneels down to put the flower in its place below Pentecost's picture. On her way back up, she touches it, briefly, like anything more would be a disturbance. The light of the setting sound reflects on the glass as it falls through the large window that opens up to the bay. He loved that view, could spend hours up here, just looking, while he figured out their next step or poured over yet another obstacle to overcome. 

She finds Raleigh in the doorway, looking at his feet, the now empty package held in front of him. Giving her space, privacy. 

Mako walks up to him, takes it out of his hands and puts them around her waist, feels him relax when he hugs her back. She doesn't know how long they stand there, her face pressed to his chest and his buried in her hair, until she steps back and takes the package, nudges at him to leave. 

Before he closes the door, he gives one last look to the pictures and the flowers beneath them. The expression he wears on his face while he does so is one she knows all too well; she's seen it in the mirror so many times since Pitfall.

There should be an eighth plate up there, right along with the others, Mako thinks as they walk back to their quarters. She doesn't dare ask if he ever did this for Yancy.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm European and the things I know about Japanese and Chinese culture are... limited, to say the least, and Google only takes me so far. If I misstepped anywhere with Mako's characterization or references to her background or the setting in Hong Kong, please know that I don't mean any disrespect and will gladly correct any mistakes I might've made in that regard if they're pointed out to me.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic] A Banquet for Ghosts](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12586484) by [Shmaylor](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shmaylor/pseuds/Shmaylor)




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